WILKES-BARRE, PA. – The Manhattanville College softball team, ranked No. 15 in the most recent National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Division III Top 25 poll, advanced to the day one winners' game – set to begin at 2:00 p.m. – following a game one 4-2 victory over DeSales University Friday morning, May 3, at the 2019 Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Freedom Softball Championship. The top-seeded Valiants will faced the winner of the game currently going on between Wilkes University and Misericordia University.
 
The Valiants (38-2) and Bulldogs (16-23) both started out with some trouble offensively, as neither squad was able to manage a run in the first four innings. Manhattanville made some noise with a couple of hits and a walk to load the bases with two outs in the bottom of first, but was unable to capitalize. In the second inning, the Valiants once again had a chance offensively, but stranded a pair to keep it scoreless.
 
It was DeSales who broke through first, picking up two runs in the top of the fifth thanks in large part to an error on a bunt play that allowed the Bulldog batter to reach and send the leadoff runner to third. A sacrifice fly sent the baserunner home to put DeSales up 1-0. With two outs, a single through the right side made it 2-0 to give the Bulldogs some early hope – but fortunately for the Valiants, their bats finally woke up in the home half.
 
Sophomores Brooke Franson (Newport Beach, Calif./Corona del Mar) and Isela Casillas (Chula Vista, Calif./Eastlake) led off the inning with back-to-back singles. Rookie Giovanna Liggett (Fountain Valley, Calif./Edison) stepped into the batter's box next and promptly took the second pitch and sent it to center for the RBI single to slice the deficit in half at 2-1 – this sequence forced DeSales to make its first pitching change of the day.
 
Senior Desiree Buboi (Villa Park, Calif./Orange Lutheran) was the first Valiant batter to greet the new Bulldog hurler and sent a single to left to load the bases. Senior Evonne Torres (Hacienda Heights, Calif./Pioneer) stepped to the plate next with the bases juiced and fought to a full count before knocking a double over the leftfielder's head to score two runs and put Manhattanville ahead 3-2 – a lead the top-seeded Valiants would not relinquish – and also forced another pitching change. For good measure with runners on the corners and two outs, Buboi managed to score from third on a wild pitch for the insurance run and make it 4-2.
 
Graduate student Alycia Feeney (Brewster, N.Y./Brewster) – who improved to 16-1 on the season with 7.0 innings and no earned runs – cruised through the final two innings of the game for the Valiants to lock in the MAC Freedom Tournament victory. She added three strikeouts against the Bulldogs.